Title
Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience
Abstract
Terror management theory posits that people tend to respond defensively to reminders of death, including worldview defense, self-esteem striving, and suppression of death thoughts. Seven experiments examined whether trait mindfulness-a disposition characterized by receptive attention to present experience-reduced defensive responses to mortality salience (MS). Under MS, less mindful individuals showed higher worldview defense (Studies 1-3) and self-esteem striving (Study 5), yet more mindful individuals did not defend a constellation of values theoretically associated with mindfulness (Study 4). To explain these findings through proximal defense processes, Study 6 showed that more mindful individuals wrote about their death for a longer period of time, which partially mediated the inverse association between trait mindfulness and worldview defense. Study 7 demonstrated that trait mindfulness predicted less suppression of death thoughts immediately following MS. The discussion highlights the relevance of mindfulness to theories that emphasize the nature of conscious processing in understanding responses to threat.
Department(s)
Psychology
Document Type
Article
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019388
Keywords
Mindfulness, Mortality salience, Self-determination theory, Terror management theory
Publication Date
8-1-2010
Recommended Citation
Niemiec, Christopher P., Kirk Warren Brown, Todd B. Kashdan, Philip J. Cozzolino, William E. Breen, Chantal Levesque-Bristol, and Richard M. Ryan. "Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience." Journal of personality and social psychology 99, no. 2 (2010): 344.
Journal Title
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
